EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The policy background

In 2003, the Scottish Parliament passed legislation outlining
the provisions for a right to housing for unintentionally
homeless households by 2012. This removes the requirement that,
to be able to access settled accommodation, presenting households
had to exhibit priority need.

In June 2010 the Scottish Government/
COSLA 2012 Joint Steering group identified the
adoption of homelessness prevention work, and in particular the
housing options approach, as a key way to help local authorities
meet the 2012 homelessness target.

Housing Options approach refocuses the way local authorities
deal with housing problems, from assessing clients on the basis
of what they are legally entitled to receive, towards an approach
based on finding the most helpful solution for the client in
light of their circumstances: the focus moves from "who can we
help?" to "how can we help?"

To help to encourage local authorities to move towards a
housing options approach, the Scottish Government launched the
Scottish Housing Options Funding Programme which outlined plans
to provide approximately £500,000 of 'enabling funding'
over a 14 month period from June 2010, to help local authorities
make the changes required to adopt housing options.

Five regional 'Hubs' were established in autumn 2010, which
brought together groups of neighbouring local authorities, with
the aim of promoting knowledge sharing and learning across
different local authorities in relation to housing options.

Aims and Methods

This report presents findings from the evaluation of the
local authority housing Hubs approach (referred to as 'Hubs').
The evaluation had two objectives:

to explore how well these arrangements are working to prevent
homelessness and deliver the 2012 homelessness target, and

to identify and examine what has been working well in order
to develop, promote and share good practice.

The evaluation was conducted primarily through qualitative
research with all Hub members and a sample of local authority
Heads of Service. The evaluation also comprised analysis of the
type of contact Hubs had through the Communities of Practice
website (a tool set up to encourage the sharing of information
across Hubs), and secondary data analysis of national
Homelessness data.

Overview of the Hubs

Five regional Hubs were created across Scotland. Hubs are
grouped broadly by geography, bringing together neighbouring
local authorities.

Each Hub had a 'lead' (or 'host') authority which was the
main contact for the Hub and was responsible for hosting meetings
and co-ordinating the activities of the Hub.

In addition to local authority members, at the time of
fieldwork, three Hubs had invited external organisations
(Registered Social Landlords and third sector agencies) to become
part of their Hub.

Two of the Hubs had commissioned external organisations to
assist with the administration of Hub activities, while one
utilised internal administration support to assist with
Hub-related tasks. The remaining two 'leads' carried out tasks
without any specific administration support.

Hubs made efforts to meet on a regular basis but some did so
more frequently than others: one met monthly, three met every six
weeks and one met quarterly. As a result, there was huge
variation in the number of meetings held across the five
Hubs.

To be eligible for enabling funding, each Hub was required to
submit an action plan which outlined a number of desired outcomes
for the Hub, the proposed action to achieve each outcome, and
associated estimated timescales and levels of funding required to
deliver each.

Overall, 71% of the funding that was originally awarded to
Hubs was spent.

What benefits have Hubs achieved?

There was evidence to suggest that the Hubs benefited local
authorities in two ways:

increasing '
buy in' to the housing options approach and the
prevention of homelessness particularly among local authorities
who had not yet developed, or were in the early stages of
developing, their housing options approaches by helping to:
raise the profile of housing options; and
legitimise and build confidence in the approach.

assisting local authorities in the
development of housing options approaches through
Hub-related projects (paid for by the available enabling
funding) and through the
sharing of best practice - including: learning from more
advanced local authorities about what worked well when they were
developing their housing options approach; sharing experiences of
engaging with
RSLs and private landlords; and taking staff
on visits to other local authorities to observe the activities of
frontline staff who were delivering the approach on a daily
basis.

Key success factors

A number of factors were identified as having an influence on
the success of Hub working.

Early development of Hubs

Spending sufficient time in the early stages to develop clear
aims for the Hub

Hub members who felt that they had received most benefit from
the process were part of Hubs who had met most often in the early
stages. Making time to meet in the early stages was central to
Hubs getting off the ground and developing clear aims for the
Hub.

Membership of Hubs

Hubs consisting of local authorities at different stages in
the development of housing options

It was important to the success of Hubs that they were
comprised of local authorities at different stages in developing
housing options approaches. This ensured that Hub members could
share best practice and experiences, and learn from members who
were further ahead in the development of housing options.

The 'lead' local authority being able to make time to carry
out Hub activities

Evidence from Hubs suggested that the suitability and
effectiveness of the 'lead' was reliant on them being fully
committed to the process and making appropriate resources
available to carry out Hub-related administrative tasks (in
addition to their 'day job'). 'Leads' played an important role in
scheduling meetings, facilitating communication between members
and ensuring the continuity of Hub activities.

The inner workings of the Hub

Trust, openness and honesty among members

Trust encouraged members to be open and honest with each
other about their local
authority's progress and their concerns surrounding
housing options - to "lay their cards on the table". This helped
to facilitate the setting of clear aims for the Hub and was the
foundation for sharing information and best practice.

Having regular and frequent meetings

It was central to the success of the approach that Hubs met
frequently, particularly in the early stages. This ensured
continuity of Hub activities.

Having administrative support

Administrative support was perceived to be essential to
alleviate the workload of the 'lead' and ensure the continuity of
the Hub. Lack of administrative support was identified as a
significant barrier to the successful running of the Hub
process.

Having committed members

The success of the Hub was reliant upon all members of the
Hub being committed to the process by making efforts to attend
Hub meetings and sharing the responsibility of carrying out
action plan-related tasks. This way of w
orking helped to share responsibility across members and
ensure the continuity of Hub activities. Further, it ensured that
the process was not over-reliant on the 'lead' local
authority.

Likelihood of Hubs Continuing

There was a great deal of appetite among Hub members to
continue beyond 31st March 2012. There was a feeling that much of
the work of Hubs still had to be completed.

Hubs are likely to continue in some form, at least in the
short term, beyond 31st March 2012. Hub members identified two
ways that the process could be developed to provide greater
benefits for members:

engaging external organisations in the Hubs process - while
three Hubs had invited other external organisations, all Hubs had
ambitions to extend the membership of their Hub (to include
RSLs, private landlords and third sector
agencies). The Hub was seen as a potential platform in which to
involve external organisations in the homelessness prevention
agenda

increasing sharing between Hubs - while the Scottish
Government made efforts to facilitate sharing between Hubs, by
creating the Communities of Practice website, the website was not
widely used. Hub members were keen for more regular and active
sharing of information and experiences across Hubs.

Factors which may impact on Hubs continuing

It was evident that two issues would need to be addressed for
this to be considered. These were:

the availability of funding - without funding, members
of one Hub did not believe they would be able to pay for travel
from their own local authority's budget; since some form of
administrative support was seen as being very helpful, members
felt that it was important to make some funding available for
this purpose; some felt that it was important for the Scottish
Government to make some money available to fund Hub based ideas
and activities.

Hubs maintaining a clear purpose - some Hub members had
doubts as to whether there would be reason to continue in the
longer term, when all the desired outcomes of the Hub and the
2012 Target had been met. Therefore, if Hubs are going to
continue, their purpose and aims would need to be restated. This
may include their importance to the ongoing development of the
housing options approach in all Scottish local authorities

Replicating the Hubs Model in other service areas

Hub members and Heads of Service felt that there could be
value in rolling out the Hub approach, either to areas related to
housing or in other service areas. However, while they felt that
many of these individual principles could be used in any service
area, for the Hubs model itself to be valid and effective, it
would need to be applied to an area where the challenges faced by
local authorities are similar to those which prompted the
development of the Hubs.

Best practice guidance

The evaluation is able to offer some insights into how the
Hubs model could be best designed. The following measures should
be taken to ensure maximum benefit is derived from the Hubs
model:

During the setup of Hubs:

Organisers (e.g. the Scottish Government) and Hub members
(e.g. local authorities) should agree general principles at the
outset of Hubs around the aims of the process and what Hubs are
being set up to achieve

Organisers should host events/seminars with Hub members to
launch the Hubs approach

Organisers and Hub members should ensure that each Hub is
made up of members at different stages in the development of
services

Organisers and Hub members should set up formal mechanisms
to share information between Hubs

Organisers should ask for volunteer 'lead' Hub members that
are committed to the work of their Hub

Once the Hubs have been set up:

Hub members should schedule regular and frequent
meetings

Hub members should have more regular meetings in the
initial development of the Hub

Organisers should make funding available to Hub members to
carry out joint project work only after Hubs have had time to
develop clear aims